The Mikea Hunter-Gathers of Southwestern Madagascar: Ecology and Socio-Economics

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Periodical article

Title:	The Mikea Hunter-Gathers of Southwestern Madagascar: Ecology and Socio-Economics
Author:	Stiles, Daniel N.
Year:	1998
Periodical:	African Study Monographs
Volume:	19
Issue:	3
Period:	November
Pages:	127-148
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Madagascar
Subjects:	subsistence economy hunter-gatherers Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
External link:	https://jambo.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kiroku/asm_normal/abstracts/pdf/19-3/127-148.pdf
Abstract:	The Mikea are a little known group of between 1000 and 2000 people who live in the semarid Mikea forest of southwestern Madagascar. Building on previous descriptions of the Mikea way of life, the author describes their origins, history, economy (subsistence and settlement patterns), and culture. He hypothesizes that the Mikea persist as hunter-gatherers as an ecological and socioeconomic adaptation employing resource partitioning and mutualistic specialization with neighbouring agropastoralists. He suggests two possible ways to mitigate the detrimental effects of 'hatsake', the Mikea system of slash-and-burn cultivation: develop trade in wild forest products and crafts and services based on them to provide adequate income with which to buy supplemental food and necessary goods, and identify inexpensive fertilizers that could allow the reuse of cleared fields over extended periods. App. (Mikea plant list, Mikea fauna list), bibliogr., notes, sum.